Drawing 12 volts off a 48 Volt battery bank?

[Cascade1911]

I started with one 100 AH 12V LiFePO4 battery, added a second and then when I decided to transition to a 48V system I added two more. Not the greatest way of going about it but hear I am. So I also need a 12 volt circuit. Can I hook to one of the batteries in the series? Will they balance themselves? Or do I need to run a step down converter.

 

[rodrick]

I started with one 100 AH 12V LiFePO4 battery, added a second and then when I decided to transition to a 48V system I added two more. Not the greatest way of going about it but hear I am. So I also need a 12 volt circuit. Can I hook to one of the batteries in the series? Will they balance themselves? Or do I need to run a step down converter.

Run a 48 to 12 converter to keep the batteries balanced don’t pull of of one battery

 

[Lt.Dan]

Definitely use a DC-DC Converter. They are cheap at like $30-40 depending on your current needs.

They will not self-balance, so make sure they are all in balance before they go into series.